Agno
BACKER
It's really too bad Raven are in and have been in the CoD mines for so long. They used to make decent to great oddities that I savor. I hadn't touched this one since it released and I played the demo. I recently saw a copy of it at a retro game store for $80 so I decided I'd go the ol' RPCS3 route. Pretty fun game! The combos and enemy variety are lacking, but the presentation is quite good and I never got tired of watching Logan's wounds heal.
2011
As good as these get.
2023
A solo dev phenomenon that turns out to be one of the best coop games released in years. I love the art style and atmosphere, the use of proximity chat both works to solidify that atmosphere as well as upend it in hilarious ways. Nothing beats hearing a friend's scream cut out and realizing you have to now navigate a labyrinth back to the exit alone.
Part demo for King's Field III, part prequel to fill in a small gap between it and it's predecessor. A quick 30 or so minute one-shot King's Field that really encapsulates its whole deal in a short amount of time, which offers a great opportunity for someone to jump in and see if this series is for them. Kinda wild to have almost the whole thing take place outside, feels so much more open than the last two games.
Played via Vimm's online hosting, for some reason the downloaded bin wouldn't go past Press Start.
Played via Vimm's online hosting, for some reason the downloaded bin wouldn't go past Press Start.
Finished my initial playthrough a couple weeks ago, but wanted to sit with it and continue a bit more before logging since it's true ending is unlocked after 3 playthroughs. I may yet get to that third playthrough, we'll see.
In the meantime, I really enjoyed my time with this. I hadn't played an Armored Core thoroughly since the PS2 and had only dabbled in Armored Core 4 a bit on PS3. Coming to VI I was practically fresh-faced to the series, but knew what I wanted most was a game more divorced from what From has been doing since Demon's Souls and I'd say it mostly succeeds there. It is clearly inspired in parts by their more contemporary titles, but is a definite departure which makes sense as it's directed by Masaru Yamamura, the lead designer of anomaly title Sekiro. I think this was for the best as it allows a different experimentation from what we're used to.
The game has a satisfying, challenging, and deceptively simple but addictive hook of a loop: build your machine of destruction and take it as far as it goes. If you hit a wall, then recuperate and build an even more efficient death machine that fits the job better. My personal favorite build was quick reverse-jointed legs with a pulse handgun in my left hand, a pulse shotgun in my right, the PILE-BUNKER always at the ready on my left shoulder, and some type of missile on my right. Pulse weapons quickly eat away at their impact meter while I dash all around, staggering them before lunging toward them, switching my left hand to the bunker, and delivering a massive chunk of damage to their impacted state.
Rinse and repeat for ~25 hours, add in some jaw-dropping setpieces and an unparalleled scale, and you've got Armored Core VI which is a pretty damn good game.
In the meantime, I really enjoyed my time with this. I hadn't played an Armored Core thoroughly since the PS2 and had only dabbled in Armored Core 4 a bit on PS3. Coming to VI I was practically fresh-faced to the series, but knew what I wanted most was a game more divorced from what From has been doing since Demon's Souls and I'd say it mostly succeeds there. It is clearly inspired in parts by their more contemporary titles, but is a definite departure which makes sense as it's directed by Masaru Yamamura, the lead designer of anomaly title Sekiro. I think this was for the best as it allows a different experimentation from what we're used to.
The game has a satisfying, challenging, and deceptively simple but addictive hook of a loop: build your machine of destruction and take it as far as it goes. If you hit a wall, then recuperate and build an even more efficient death machine that fits the job better. My personal favorite build was quick reverse-jointed legs with a pulse handgun in my left hand, a pulse shotgun in my right, the PILE-BUNKER always at the ready on my left shoulder, and some type of missile on my right. Pulse weapons quickly eat away at their impact meter while I dash all around, staggering them before lunging toward them, switching my left hand to the bunker, and delivering a massive chunk of damage to their impacted state.
Rinse and repeat for ~25 hours, add in some jaw-dropping setpieces and an unparalleled scale, and you've got Armored Core VI which is a pretty damn good game.
Received this for free with my AMD 7900X.
Not much to say. Complete ass on PC for the most part. The times it ran well were nice, but the game itself can be such a slog. Half-assed platforming sections constantly with a poorly balanced difficulty slider. There's a reason the games this apes don't have one. There's no point in talking the narrative. It's the thing for the SW/Marvel bunch to pretend is groundbreaking or remotely interesting. Boring!
Did not enjoy the first game much, which I played on Jedi Master difficulty and that's the difficulty I chose for this. It's not challenging as much as it's annoying. The combat still isn't responsive enough, feels too floaty and weightless. It's a game that constantly pulls punches and rarely ever feels satisfying.
Graphically this felt like a step up, but I was playing this on PC this time whereas I played the first on PS5 where it's such an ugly, muddy experience. Unfortunately here, again and obviously, Respawn released a shitty product on PC. The game looks like shit unless you have FSR on, even playing at native 4K with settings at Epic. The opening on Coruscant tricked me into thinking this was a visual delight until I got to the barren and frankly ugly Koboh. Some of the tighter corridors look fantastic though! The inside of the Mantis looks stellar, as well as the inside of the cantina on Koboh. Lots of intricate detail. The environments are totally boring though.
All in all, I'm not sure what I expected after playing the first game. I just can't care for these half-baked adventure/soulslike games. None of them reach the heights of what they take inspiration from. This is another "baby's first From" experience with a Star Wars coat on, but you also have to do mindless platforming between any remotely interesting combat experience. I'm sick of it! This isn't even a terrible game, it's just a totally forgettable one. I got just over halfway or so before giving up. Can't waste any more time.
Not much to say. Complete ass on PC for the most part. The times it ran well were nice, but the game itself can be such a slog. Half-assed platforming sections constantly with a poorly balanced difficulty slider. There's a reason the games this apes don't have one. There's no point in talking the narrative. It's the thing for the SW/Marvel bunch to pretend is groundbreaking or remotely interesting. Boring!
Did not enjoy the first game much, which I played on Jedi Master difficulty and that's the difficulty I chose for this. It's not challenging as much as it's annoying. The combat still isn't responsive enough, feels too floaty and weightless. It's a game that constantly pulls punches and rarely ever feels satisfying.
Graphically this felt like a step up, but I was playing this on PC this time whereas I played the first on PS5 where it's such an ugly, muddy experience. Unfortunately here, again and obviously, Respawn released a shitty product on PC. The game looks like shit unless you have FSR on, even playing at native 4K with settings at Epic. The opening on Coruscant tricked me into thinking this was a visual delight until I got to the barren and frankly ugly Koboh. Some of the tighter corridors look fantastic though! The inside of the Mantis looks stellar, as well as the inside of the cantina on Koboh. Lots of intricate detail. The environments are totally boring though.
All in all, I'm not sure what I expected after playing the first game. I just can't care for these half-baked adventure/soulslike games. None of them reach the heights of what they take inspiration from. This is another "baby's first From" experience with a Star Wars coat on, but you also have to do mindless platforming between any remotely interesting combat experience. I'm sick of it! This isn't even a terrible game, it's just a totally forgettable one. I got just over halfway or so before giving up. Can't waste any more time.
2011
What can I say but life was different after playing Dark Souls. An untapped interest in the medium was unlocked. I hadn't really known what I wanted from video games until I played Dark Souls. It's my favorite game of all time and one of the most important pieces of media and art to me, maybe the most important.
Finally getting to play this classic thanks to the Switch remaster. This is one of my favorite looking games on the console with the texture overhauls. I wasn't sure what to expect when it starts aboard the pirate ship, but I was hooked as soon as Samus emerged from her ship on Tallon IV. Incredible atmosphere and music. The best parts of this game are exploring it and living in it, and unfortunately the worst parts are how often you have to retread it and how lackluster the combat can be. Still, the puzzles are fun and the vibes are phenomenal. I can see why it's so beloved.
2023
Day 1: Hunt squirrels, give wife squirrels.
Day 2: Hunt squirrels, give wife squirrels.
Day 3: Hunt squirrels, give wife squirrels.
Day 4: Hunt squirrels, give wife squirrels.
Day 5: Hunt squirrels, give wife squirrels. Meet God.
Day 2: Hunt squirrels, give wife squirrels.
Day 3: Hunt squirrels, give wife squirrels.
Day 4: Hunt squirrels, give wife squirrels.
Day 5: Hunt squirrels, give wife squirrels. Meet God.
2024
Rolled credits on this a couple days ago, but ended up spending twice as much time scouring every inch of this stunning and mysterious world for all its secrets...and there are many. Rooms, puzzles, eggs, and the elusive bunnies which at this point I've given up on. I've seen and done far more in this than I ever thought I would. Visually dense, vibrant, kaleidoscopic. This is matched perfectly by its precise mechanics, it just feels incredible to play. You master its simple movements gradually as more is added to your toolkit until you find a sense that you are breaking the game the way you combine them. Recommend going for the true ending, it's a feast, and the secrets you find along the way open this right up. Brilliant game.
Glad to finally have my hands on this childhood classic of mine and it has aged more brilliantly than I'd hoped for. A grounded, atmospheric, and even sometimes terrifying survival game. The default settings are HUD-less, not even a crosshair. You use every resource available to you, mostly bone spears, to navigate the hostile Skull Island. Fight dinosaurs, giant centipedes, primordial gators, you name it. All of these monsters eat each other as well. Kill one and use it as bait to make your escape. Stick a big bug on a spear and throw it into thorny bramble to lure them in then set the bramble on fire to burn them all to death. It's filled with these little emergent moments. Then suddenly you play as Kong in a big monster brawler, climbing vines and breaking V-Rex jaws. Easily the gold standard for movie tie-ins, a genuinely great survival game on its own. The best game Ubisoft have touched.
2013
Zenozoik looks more alive now thanks to UE3, but I can't help but miss what Source brought to it. Narratively this is the more impressive game, peeling back layers of this world I hadn't foreseen. My initial pull to Zenozoik was thinking about it's place in time, whether it was of Earth or a distant planet. These secrets are (partially) revealed in a way that makes you question the order of this world. Are the Zenos worthy of existing in a world of order? Can they even respond to order? The Corwid are seen to the inhabitants of Halstedom the same way the Zenos on the whole are likely seen by the world outside, if that world even still exists. They are a people without history or the means to live in a world devoid of chaos.
Anyways, mechanically this is more complex, but I feel a bit like I miss the simplicity of the first. The introduction of combos is welcome, but there are 2 combos taught at the end of the tutorial that will carry you right through without error. The ally system is cool, but also sort of needless. You're pretty capable of taking on most enemies in the game on your own, even in groups, and the healing time on allies can mean you won't even be able to summon them when you most need them. You can level up now, but I wish this was a little more fleshed out and that maybe the XP was tied to enemies encountered rather than tokens found in the world but it does reward exploration and I was all too ready to explore.
This all may sound a tad underwhelming, but I can't speak more highly of the atmosphere these games offer. The design and mystery of Zenozoik make me want to see every corner, better understand the lives of these chimera. The score in this one is evocative of a time and place beyond ours, it's so good. A fantastic game and sequel and I'm looking forward to Clash. I'm late to the ACE party, but I'm eager to play more of their games.
Anyways, mechanically this is more complex, but I feel a bit like I miss the simplicity of the first. The introduction of combos is welcome, but there are 2 combos taught at the end of the tutorial that will carry you right through without error. The ally system is cool, but also sort of needless. You're pretty capable of taking on most enemies in the game on your own, even in groups, and the healing time on allies can mean you won't even be able to summon them when you most need them. You can level up now, but I wish this was a little more fleshed out and that maybe the XP was tied to enemies encountered rather than tokens found in the world but it does reward exploration and I was all too ready to explore.
This all may sound a tad underwhelming, but I can't speak more highly of the atmosphere these games offer. The design and mystery of Zenozoik make me want to see every corner, better understand the lives of these chimera. The score in this one is evocative of a time and place beyond ours, it's so good. A fantastic game and sequel and I'm looking forward to Clash. I'm late to the ACE party, but I'm eager to play more of their games.
2009
Really loved this, even as short as it is. It took roughly 3 or so hours to finish and I was fully immersed the whole time. This world has such a unique atmosphere and mystique, brought to life in Source. It looks just phenomenal, the animations and design of the world and its inhabitants feel so raw and bizarre but also impressive and inspiring. The combat loop is just complex enough, brawling and blocking, dodging and punishing, even shooting. It's enough to give you a good amount of control in how you play, with a decent skill ceiling that I never got a chance to master by the time the credits rolled. I'm glad I have Zeno Clash II and Clash: Artifacts of Chaos to look forward to.
The bridge between a budding studio and the powerhouse they've become. What is so inspiring about King's Field IV, and those that came before it, is that From's approach to design is not new. Their fascination with exploration, dying worlds, challenge, and hands-off approach have been cultivated for decades now. These games seem vastly under-appreciated now when compared to this same approach years later finally being embraced.
I think the biggest hurdle with these games now is accessibility combined with a straight-up intolerance to failure. I'm not sure how long it would've taken for me to get through without save states, it surely would've added at least a couple hours. But these are also pretty much unattainable on original hardware. This one alone goes for $170 at the very least, for a US copy, jumping up hundreds of dollars more for sealed/graded copies, but I digress.
I tried playing this years ago and was immediately stumped by controls. Despite moving to the PS2, this title does not use both analog sticks and keeps the same layout set by even the first Japanese title. Forward and looking side to side with the left stick, R2 and L2 to look up and down, and R1 and L1 to strafe. I managed to at least remap to where i could look up and down with the right stick, but still had to strafe with the bumpers. So, if you can get past these insane controls, and it really only takes a little bit to get used to, you are in for a real treat. Also for some reason this title is like, super interlaced and visually breaks if you try to do any higher res rendering. I am now BEGGING for some sort of modern ports, I think these could look and play wonderfully if given the treatment. I'm sure that is not some moneymaker, but maybe From/Bamco/whoever (no clue who owns the rights to these) could package it now as "From the creators of Elden Ring" and it would fly off shelves (probably not but I badly want this.)
This is my favorite of the series, and would make a great starting off point if someone is at all interested in these games. It fits nicely between the smaller scope of the first two titles and the more epic scope of 3 to create a more linear, dense, atmospheric experience. Tsukasa Saitoh's score is incredible, especially the Holy Forest track. It manages to convey the sorrow of a world long gone with the hope that it may be renewed in one track, and really hammers home the tone and themes of the entire game. A one of a kind experience.
I think the biggest hurdle with these games now is accessibility combined with a straight-up intolerance to failure. I'm not sure how long it would've taken for me to get through without save states, it surely would've added at least a couple hours. But these are also pretty much unattainable on original hardware. This one alone goes for $170 at the very least, for a US copy, jumping up hundreds of dollars more for sealed/graded copies, but I digress.
I tried playing this years ago and was immediately stumped by controls. Despite moving to the PS2, this title does not use both analog sticks and keeps the same layout set by even the first Japanese title. Forward and looking side to side with the left stick, R2 and L2 to look up and down, and R1 and L1 to strafe. I managed to at least remap to where i could look up and down with the right stick, but still had to strafe with the bumpers. So, if you can get past these insane controls, and it really only takes a little bit to get used to, you are in for a real treat. Also for some reason this title is like, super interlaced and visually breaks if you try to do any higher res rendering. I am now BEGGING for some sort of modern ports, I think these could look and play wonderfully if given the treatment. I'm sure that is not some moneymaker, but maybe From/Bamco/whoever (no clue who owns the rights to these) could package it now as "From the creators of Elden Ring" and it would fly off shelves (probably not but I badly want this.)
This is my favorite of the series, and would make a great starting off point if someone is at all interested in these games. It fits nicely between the smaller scope of the first two titles and the more epic scope of 3 to create a more linear, dense, atmospheric experience. Tsukasa Saitoh's score is incredible, especially the Holy Forest track. It manages to convey the sorrow of a world long gone with the hope that it may be renewed in one track, and really hammers home the tone and themes of the entire game. A one of a kind experience.
2024
Dragon's Dogma II is beautifully idiosyncratic, if not lacking somewhat in enemy/location variety, but makes up for that in it's open-ended approach to design. Changing your class whenever you like adds so much to this game that is lacking in most other fantasy RPGs. Grounding the way you traverse its world makes you put thought into how you navigate it. Creating your own skillset allows you to build weird and wonderful characters, a very fun way to experiment with how you will approach combat. The way it doesn't hold your hand, making you pay attention to the inhabitants of the world or even becoming obtuse and confounding separate this from your typical game. Overall it's almost like they turned Monster Hunter into an open world RPG, it's really something. I never played the first, something I'll likely rectify, but I really enjoyed my time with this and will probably return for a quicker second run.
I wrote out a short review a couple days ago because I'd believed I had finished the game when I sat on the thrown, becoming the Sovran. I was mistaken, Dragon's Dogma II had just begun. A gorgeously textured "epic" fantasy that became a deconstruction of the hero's journey. The submission of your pawn and the other pawns you encounter is turned into a mirror where you are faced with your own lack of will in the grand scheme of this world. That this was all designed exactly for the Arisen's journey. You don't take on quests, they are mandated by the game's creators just as the Arisen's path is to carry these quests out in a facsimile of will. A game greater than the sum of its parts, and there are some very strong parts.
I wrote out a short review a couple days ago because I'd believed I had finished the game when I sat on the thrown, becoming the Sovran. I was mistaken, Dragon's Dogma II had just begun. A gorgeously textured "epic" fantasy that became a deconstruction of the hero's journey. The submission of your pawn and the other pawns you encounter is turned into a mirror where you are faced with your own lack of will in the grand scheme of this world. That this was all designed exactly for the Arisen's journey. You don't take on quests, they are mandated by the game's creators just as the Arisen's path is to carry these quests out in a facsimile of will. A game greater than the sum of its parts, and there are some very strong parts.